Link building is a human endeavor

The secret to getting valuable, high-quality links? According to columnist Andrew Dennis, it's one-on-one interaction with another person.

Since the beginning of SEO, link building has been about human connection. People like Eric Ward were building links on the web before search engines like Google existed. Ward and other link-building pioneers weren’t building links for SEO and search crawlers — they were building links for human readers and site owners, helping connect people to the information they sought.

People rely on the internet in their day-to-day lives more now than they ever have before, and the web is fueled by links. Search engines may be able to track links and even analyze them to a degree, but links are first and foremost designed to serve people. It takes human minds to create links that are truly valuable to other humans.

Link building is a human endeavor.

Google is devaluing spam and manipulation

Google has gotten much better at detecting manipulation and link spam — and is continuing to improve. Gone are the days of auto-generating thousands of shoddy links and spamming your way to the top of the search results.

Thanks to the Penguin algorithm and the continued efforts of Google’s web spam team, link building has come full circle. Building links today is much more akin to the “good ol’ days” when people first started building links, rather than the Wild West-style antics of the pre-Penguin era.

As Google continues to get better at identifying and devaluing link spam, link building as an industry is shifting back toward human value and interaction.

If Penguin ever updates again, it is expected to move to a real-time model. This would mean another step forward for Google in the battle against spam, making real links earned through human interaction even more valuable.

About The Author

Andrew Dennis is a Content Marketing Specialist at Page One Power and a Staff Writer for Linkarati. As a Staff Writer at Linkarati Andrew gets to explore the ever-changing and exciting world of SEO on a daily basis. When he’s not writing about link building and SEO, you’ll find him attending and/or watching live sporting events. Andrew remains confident that he will see a Detroit Lions Super Bowl victory before he dies.